University of Houston Athletics
Softball Takes Two Over Nicholls State To Open 2008 Season
2/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Feb. 8, 2008
Game One Box Score in PDF Format 
Game Two Box Score in PDF Format
HOUSTON - The University of Houston softball team earned their first two wins of the 2008 season, defeating Nicholls State at Cougar Softball Stadium.
The Cougars (2-0) earned a win in game one with a score of 2-1 behind the pitching of senior Angel Shamblin. Shamblin went the distance tallying 12 strikeouts and just four hits. The one run she surrendered was unearned.
Houston scored two runs in the first inning, which proved to be all the offense the Cougars needed to secure the win.
Junior Jessica Valis lead off the game by reaching base on an error and advanced to second on an illegal pitch. She would score on a Jennifer Klinkert RBI. Junior Katie Bush scored the second and final run for the Cougars on a wild pitch.
Jessica Barksdale took the loss for Nicholls State in game one.
Freshman Baillie Lott made her pitching debut; guiding the Cougars to a 4-3 game two win. She pitched the entire game, notching three hits, three runs, only one unearned, two walks and seven strikeouts.
The Cougars opened game two scoring a run in each of the first three innings with their final run coming in the fifth inning. Jessica Valis would score again in the second game after reaching base on a single to third base.
Haley Valis tallied the Cougars second run and senior Elaina Nordstrom scored on a fielders choice that turned into an error after Tori Lay of Nicholls State overthrew first base sending the ball into foul territory.
A walk allowed Jessica Valis to reach base in the fifth inning and she would eventually score the final run for UH.
Amy Thibodeaux hit two homeruns for Nicholls State and had three RBIs to keep the Colonels in a close game. Krystalin Ensminger took the loss for Nicholls State in game two.
The wins give the Cougars a lot to build on as the season progresses.
"Anytime that you walk away with a win you should be satisfied but we hold ourselves to a standard that is higher than that. We played a lot of the innings frustrated in ourselves that we weren't doing more," head coach Kyla Holas said.
The most positive thing was our base running. We preach an aggressive style of base running and that helped us out of a lot of situations especially since we weren't hitting today."
Despite Shamblin and Lott earning their first wins this season Holas says there a still things that need to be worked on as the season progresses.
"With pitching, (Angel Shamblin and Baillie Lott) both had some good innings and are working through some things that should happen early in the season and then you fine-tune that by the end," Holas said.
The Cougars return to action Feb. 9 with a doubleheader against McNeese State at 1pm at Cougar Softball Stadium.
"You are going to see a much better team (tomorrow) than we saw today. You are going to see better defense, better pitching and you are going to see a much better offense. We have to step it up and make sure we make the adjustments from today for tomorrow," Holas said.
For a complete wrap-up of the doubleheader log onto www.UHCougar.com. Gametracker will also be available for both games.
